Top Drawer & Home 2017, one of the first gift and interiors shows of the year started in London yesterday. The show is filled with hundreds of stands taken by companies showcasing their new ranges. I am currently sat writing this blog on a London bound train to visit said show because... I have some very exciting news! Yorkshire based Walton and co ltd and I have been collaborating over the past few months to create a wonderful new range of interior products, which are being shown for the first time at Home. The stand includes samples of numerous products including aprons and oven gloves which are sewn from the Secret Garden fabric I designed. The range also includes 7 individual tea towel designs featuring amongst others hand drawn Wild Garlic, Dandelions, Blue Tits and an Allotment scene. I am really excited about working with such a well established and respect company and I can't wait to see the stand later today!
I will put some more photos on soon, but in the meantime here is a link for more information
http://www.waltonsofyorkshire.co.uk/information.php?info_id=19

Well Spring is here and the days are getting warmer (ish!). As our thoughts turn to spring cleaning and decorating, how about creating something new for your home? We are offing a new range of dates for lampshade making workshops at our studio near York. The session is two and a half hours after which you will take home your very own beautiful handmade drum lampshade. The cost of the course includes tuition, all materials to make a small shade as well as copious amounts of tea and delicious homemade cake! Feel free to bring your own fabric or choose some from our stock of over 60 different designs.

There are a number of different theories out there to help determine the correct size lampshade for a lamp base. I think that often the best way is to trust your gut instinct, if it looks right then it probably is. That said, I tend to roughly abide by the following rules:

1. Measure the table/area where the lamp is to be situated. Will the shade overhang the table edge, is it likely to get knocked as people walk passed? Choose narrower or smaller lampshades and bases for console tables and thoroughfares.

2. Ideally the diameter of the lampshade should always be greater than the width of the widest part of the lamp base.

3. With that in mind, the width of the shade (A) should never be greater than the height of the lamp base (B) (from bottom to fitting). Ideally it should be roughly the same measurement.

4. The depth of a shade (C) should ideally be between half and two thirds the height of the lamp base (D) (from bottom to fitting).

5. The shape of the base often determines the best shape of the shade. A square/rectangular base looks better with a similar shaped shade. Likewise a rounded/oval base looks better with a tapered shade.

As I say there are no hard and fast rules, and after all rules are made to be broken. So go for it, get experimental!

We have just returned from exhibiting at Spring Fair 2015 at the NEC Birmingham. This fantastic trade fair if the perfect place to showcase new designs, which is exactly what we have done! Over the winter months we have been working with York based lino artist Gerard Hobson to create a collection of stunning new lampshade and cushion designs.

There are four lampshade and cushion designs which feature amongst others; Wrens, Partridges, Owls and Swallows. The designs were lovingly created by Gerard, using lino cuts, which were then coloured and scaled by us before being printed onto an oyster linen/cotton union here in the UK. Each unique design is available in a choice of 5 different colour ways so there is something to suit every taste. The lampshades are handmade in two sizes 30cm diameter x 23cm tall (£67.50) which is perfect for a ceiling shade or table lamp and a larger 40cm diameter x 35cm tall (£98.00) shade, which is an ideal size for a standard lamp base. The cushions (£55.00) are 42cm square, printed both sides and come complete with a fluffy 20 inch feather pad. Completing this range, is a selection of beautiful bone china mugs (£12.00) featuring Woodcocks and Curlews and well as Partridges and Wrens.

The whole collection went down a storm at Spring Fair! Here is a pic of our stand. Keep an eye out as these products will be available to buy through our website very soon!

Phew, just time to write a quick blog about the fantastic day I spent at Greystokes Cycle Cafe last week. Annie Swarbrick is the brains and (most of the braun) behind the cycle cafe. It is a much needed stop for weary cyclists on the C2C bike route, topping them up with hearty food and hot drinks, but it also provides a wide selection of interesting creative workshops for those active and not so active alike.

The lampshade printing workshop ran between 9.30am and 4.30pm and despite the lashing rain, my saith ladies were all prompt for the introduction and Annie's delicious homemade biscuits! The treats did not stop there, we were served lashings of fresh tea and coffee throughout the day. At lunch there was a fantastic selection of delicious homemade soups and savoury scones as well as apple and elderberry crumble and fruit pavlov roulade for afters. For those of us that had space, we were also treated to fresh warm scones with jam and cream with yet more hot tea at the end of the day, absolutely gorgeous!

The morning of the workshop was spent with an introduction and demonstration by myself before each person moved onto research and sketch their own stamp design. The final sketch was then transferred onto a sheet of craft foam using tracing paper. This was then carefully cut out using scalpels and scissors before being glued to a square of hardboard. When the stamps were nicely dry, it was onto colour mixing the inks, my favourite part! Each person experimented inking up the stamps with sponge rollers and brushes; perfecting their printing technique on a piece of scarp fabric, before moving onto the real piece. Then after a hearty lunch all of the messy work was complete and all that was left was for us to turn each piece of patterned fabric into a stylish drum lampshade!

There was a definite seaside theme this time, with puffins, beach huts and lighthouses as well as a cute dog face, some leaping hares, an array of hedgehogs and some fabulous stylised trees.

But enough from me, check out the photos for yourself.

Fancy having a go? Why not check out the dates at Greystoke for next year here http://goo.gl/V3dm1d

If you can't make those dates, then why not come along to a course run from my own studio. For dates visit my workshop page
http://goo.gl/B2hGTE

Lucy at the lovely shop Gone To Pot ion Boroughbridge also organises a number of evening lampshade making courses, run by myself, where you can stencil and make up your own shade using Annie Sloan fabric and famous Chalk Paint. Visit her Facebook page for more information http://goo.gl/BFBjx0.

Well, I have just got back from the most fantastic stay in London. I was invited to the Country Homes and Interiors 'My Country Business Awards' near Sloane Square on Thursday the 2nd October. It was held at the lovely Daylesford Farm Shop and Cafe, where there was an abundance of delicious finger food and drinks. Think mini sandwiches, slices of homemade cake, winter Pimms and lashings of tasty Prosecco!

The awards were handed out to myself and five other category winners by the magazine Editor Rhoda Parry, who gave a nice introduction to the proceedings. My lovely mentor in the Interiors category, Vanessa Arbuthnott presented me with a beautiful bouquet of hand tied flowers, so by the time I had the flowers in one hand and the award in the other, it made finishing my fizz a little difficult!

I want to say a huge thank you Country Homes and Interiors for the award and for inviting me to the wonderful ceremony too. Thank you also Vanessa, I am very much looking forward to our next mentoring session.

It's freebie Friday time!
It has been an age since we had a little give away, so here we go. How do you fancy winning one of our gorgeous Magpie lampshades? Choose from our best selling pink or turquoise background, or even the fab new Yellow or Green backgrounds, launched in the Spring.

Over the the past 4 years my business has grown in more ways than one. Accumulating new equipment, carrying stock and processing more orders has obviously lead to the need for more physical space. My large lampshades are 40cm x 38cm and once I have made and boxed up more than a couple of these I can't move for the wall of boxes! So with this in mind, it was either move the business to a larger premises, or make the one I am in bigger. The thought of leaving the beautiful cricket pavilion was not ideal, so when an old portakabin became available on the next door farm, this seemed like fate, it was time to extend.

The concrete pads were poured and leveled a few weeks before the move. The portakabin is to sit on concrete blocks, on top of these pads. We transported the building on the back of the tractor and trailer, in the same way that we moved the pavilion in 2005.

However this time there was no need for a crane, just the farm loader and chains. It was my job to go onto the roof and move the chains from the hooks at the front to the ones at the back of the building. This was a little unnerving when the Portakabin was up on the full height of it's stilts!
With a little patience the building was soon in it's new position. Now the fun bit of renovating it began.

The first thing to do was to cut a new doorway into the side of the building, so that it could be accessed along the veranda of the pavilion. Thankfully my dad is extremely handy and was solely in charge of this task! The next job was to remove the partition wall between the two far rooms to create one large, light workspace with 4 windows. A few coats of white paint soon added to the new feeling of space, then it was in with some durable carpet and blackout blinds to give it some warmth. Finally the Pièce de résistance was to build my new bespoke workbench, which I love. Finally having a table which is built to the right height to work at, whilst being big enough to roll out metres of fabric is bliss. Again dad, thank you!